Sharing My ALS Clinic Chuckles

Recently, I had one of those happy-sad moments. It was brought on simply because next week’s ALS clinic visit was rescheduled for January. I was like a kid waking up to snow and no school. Yippee, a free day! And yet a bit sad, because I’d have to wait…

A dissolving oral film form of riluzole, called Exservan and able to be taken by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients without a need for water, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Riluzole was the first ALS treatment, approved by the FDA over two decades…

A $106 million Weill Family Foundation initiative will bring together interdisciplinary researchers and clinicians at three West Coast universities in hopes of finding new treatments for brain and nervous system disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley), the University…

After my husband Todd’s ALS diagnosis, he said, “We need to sell the house and move near your parents.” He anticipated that their day-to-day support in rural northern Michigan would be more important than being near an ALS clinic in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We appreciated the convenience of seeing Todd’s…

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” One day recently, I became incensed. My anger was not your garden-variety ire; I experienced the kind of rage that blinds. The cause of my eruption was the coincidental convergence of one…

When I was diagnosed with ALS in 2010, my doctor told me there was one medication available to help slow the progression of the symptoms. But there was no cure. I left her office with a prescription for Rilutek (riluzole), the first treatment…